Valve has sold the Steam Deck on portability, battery life and that gorgeous OLED screen. Apparently it also works as a dating app.
A coffee shop, a handheld and a 15-minute fix
One gamer has shared how his Steam Deck OLED helped him find a girlfriend. He used to take it to a coffee shop to get some gaming in before work. One morning he was playing The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom when another Steam Deck owner, Maya, came over.
She was having trouble setting up emulation on her own Deck, so he offered to help. What should have been a 15-minute fix turned into conversation, then dinner dates, then a relationship.
Five months later: Baldur’s Gate 3 co-op
The couple are now five months in, and they are playing Baldur’s Gate 3 together. As co-op games go, that is a strong pick. Larian’s RPG is still one of the best games to play with a partner, and a good test of any relationship once you start arguing over who gets the loot.
The best part of the story is how it started. He says he originally bought the Steam Deck to avoid people. The handheld was meant to let him disappear into his own world for a while, and it ended up doing the exact opposite.
Handheld gaming is getting more social
Stories like this are a nice reminder of how much handheld PC gaming has grown. Seeing a Steam Deck in a cafe, on a train or at the airport is normal now, and when two players spot each other’s hardware, there is an instant conversation starter.
If you are thinking of taking your own Deck out in public, check which games actually run well first. Our Steam Deck games database lists which titles are Verified, Playable or Unsupported, so you do not end up stuck in a coffee shop with a game that will not launch.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is still going strong
Like this couple, plenty of players are still playing BG3 years after launch. Here is where it stands on our Baldur’s Gate 3 player count page:
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| All-time peak | 875,343 (Aug 1, 2023) |
| Playing at time of writing | 28,722 |
| 24-hour peak | 42,531 |
| Steam rating | 96%, Overwhelmingly Positive |
Almost 29,000 people playing at once, more than three years after release, is impressive. Keep an eye on the Baldur’s Gate 3 Steam chart to see how it holds up. Bring a friend for the co-op, and maybe a coffee.
